User Reviews Akai EWI USB

(Originally written by billouze/translated from Audiofanzine FR)
- How long have you been using it?

24 hours!

- Which feature do you like the most / the least?

Rugged, light, very reactive.

- Did you try any other models before buying it?

No. Like a lot of people, I dreamed about an EW400... But it was too expensive!

- How would you rate its value for money?

Excellent!

- Based on your experience, would you buy this product again?

Yes!!!!!!! One day of use is not much... But I didn't sleep a lot yesterday. The software provided gives good results. So I imagine the possibilities with Samplemodeling's The trumpet or any other high-quality software are huge... Even a big virtual synth would give stunning results.

Back to the product: I think Akai ought to provide a bag or a cover for the instrument...

I've had about 10 months.
No difficulty when out of the box. quickly recognized as a midi controller.
the module from its base (GARITAN aria) is absolutely realistic but definitely not all.
on the other hand, coupled with sound banks Sample Modeling (sounds studied for windcontrolers) and a good reverb (Altiverb), then the result is more than impressive.
Not knowing necessarily play a wind instrument (clarinet and saxophone) I chose EWI fingering Standart (one of the different fingerings offered by EWI) behaves roughly speaking as a single flute fingering. Therefore no difficulty in handling except perhaps managing to integrate octave but it is also quite fast.
Once the presentations ... we quickly realized that we are able to program with the EWI breath controller and things infeasible to the modulation wheel. touch or programing will never replace the instinct that you put in a breath.
In any case my settings (orchestral) reached a much higher level of realism that I did before with this (low) investment.
It is clear that there will be more sophisticated devices such as EWI4000 which has additional functions ... but for a simple composition in the studio, the EWI USB is perfect
Bought in a shop on Ebay for much less American than Europe.

I use it for a little less than a year. I have not tried its closest competitor, the Yamaha WX5 from home.

Is not a wind instrument player, but a pianist, I was looking for a good wind controller. In the absence of breath sensor alone worthy of the name, I decided to buy the ewi usb to use as breath sensor + bite (double-checking the mouth) in addition to my keyboard ( in the workplace), and also as an instrument in its own right, just for fun.
I use it with virtual instruments Sample modeling that are particularly suitable for revealing the full potential of the beast.
So why only 8/10?
Already, because it is still expensive for something that by itself produces no sound (provided the bank with not worth the detour).
But more importantly, because the manual is lacking, and the software configuration is unstable and extremely wrong. I myself run 32bit version on my W7 64bit, the 64bit version crashing consistently ... Go figure ...

But this is a minor little shadow, which should in no way obscure the overall very positive assessment of this tool, provided with the right to use virtual instruments behind (Sample Modeling is shown again ).